The Culture Show Podcast

GBH News · wgbh.org

A Boston-based podcast that thrives in how we live. What we like to see, watch, taste, hear, feel and talk about. It’s an expansive look at our society through art, culture and entertainment. It’s a conversation about the seminal moments and sizable shocks that are driving the daily discourse. We’ll amplify local creatives and explore the homegrown arts and culture landscape and tap into the big talent that tours Boston along the way.

712 episodes

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Episodes 300

August 28, 2026 - Week in Review: Remembering Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Yayoi Kusama
2d ago · 55:35
Joyce Kulhawik joins Lisa Simmons, Artistic and Executive Director of the Roxbury International Film Festival, and Culture Show producer Kate Dellis for a look at some of the week’s biggest arts and culture stories, which included: Dolly Parton died this week at 80, leaving behind thousands of songs, 11 Grammys, more than 100 million records sold—and a philanthropic legacy that put hundreds of millions of books into the hands of children around the world. Tim Curry, the actor who turned Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show into one of cinema’s great cult characters, died this we
August 27, 2026 - Christopher Rothko, Ask E. Jean, and "Broken American Dream" with Daniel Paquette
3d ago · 55:23
Christopher Rothko joins us to discuss his donation of his father’s 1934 Gloucester Harbor painting to the Cape Ann Museum and what the early work reveals about Mark Rothko before abstraction defined his career. He and his sister, Kate Rothko Prizel, will also appear at the museum’s Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the SeaSymposium September 17 and 18. Filmmaker Ivy Meeropol joins us to discuss Ask E. Jean, her new documentary tracing E. Jean Carroll’s unconventional life, public voice and legal battle with Donald Trump. The film screens August 27 as part of the Nantucket Film Festival’s summer do
August 26, 2026 - Remembering Dolly Parton with Paula Cole, Conversations with an Executioner, and corsets in Worcester
4d ago · 55:37
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole joins The Culture Show to remember Dolly Parton, an artist she long admired and later collaborated with on “Heart Door.” Cole reflects on Parton’s songwriting, influence and the experience of making music with her. Cole’s new archival project, Sonic Memoir: Demos 1989–1998, arrives September 10. On September 18, she brings This Fire: 30 to the Wilbur, performing This Fire in full for its 30th anniversary. Polish resistance fighter Kazimierz Moczarski spent 255 days imprisoned with Jürgen Stroop, the Nazi officer who oversaw the destruction of the War
August 25, 2026 - Masquerade, Chef Ana Sortun, and Christin Geall on "Flora Culture"
5d ago · 55:35
Tony Award–winning director Diane Paulus, Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater, joins us to talk about “Masquerade,” an immersive reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.” Set in a five-story former department store on West 57th Street, the production turns the Paris Opera House into a candlelit maze of salons, staircases, and hidden rooms, bringing audiences in masks inches from the show’s spectacle and romance. To learn more go here. James Beard Award-winning chef Ana Sortun has spent more than two decades making the flavors of Turkey and the Eastern Med
August 24, 2026 - Sally Mann, Jeremy Sewall and being Henry David Thoreau
6d ago · 55:24
First up, Sally Mann. In 2015 renowned photographer Sally Mann published her memoir “Hold Still,” an inquiry into family history, the American South and the nature of creativity. Now, comes her book “Art Work: On the Creative Life.” It is laugh-out-loud funny. It’s irreverent. And it’s refreshingly practical as she guides the reader through her experience and process of being an artist. From there Jeremy Sewall, Chef and Owner of Row 34, shares recipes and stories from his new “Everyday Chef: Simple Dishes for Family and Friends,” which illustrates how restaurant expertise can translate into s
August 21, 2026 - Week in Review: Hayden Panettiere, Columbia House Music Club, and Phoebe Bridgers' Mass. connection
9d ago · 55:41
Today on The Culture Show, it's our arts and culture Week in Review, featuring Callie Crossley and James Sullivan. Our topics include: Remembering Hayden Panettiere. The actress who became a household name at age 16 as a super-powered high schooler in Heroes and later as a country starlet on ABC’s “Nashville” has died at 36. We’ll look at her legacy, and the impact Hollywood has on young actors. From there, remembering Bill Rasmussen. He was the visionary founder of ESPN, who turned a $91 dollar incorporation fee into a multi-billion broadcasting behemoth. We’ll consider the legacy of the man
August 20, 2026 - Larkin McPhee, Pedro Alonzo, and Melissa Errico
10d ago · 55:30
Larkin McPhee joins us to discuss I’ll See You in My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir, about her younger brother Charles McPhee, the nationally syndicated radio host known as “The Dream Doctor,” and his battle with ALS. Years after his death, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker turned to writing to bring her brother back to life on the page. McPhee appears at a free book talk at the Nantucket Atheneum on Friday, August 28 at 6 p.m. Independent curator Pedro Alonzo, a regular Culture Show contributor, returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” with dispatches from a recent trip to Oaxaca. Tony Awa
August 19, 2026 - Boston Arts and Culture Chief Joseph Zeil-Henry, Mary Grant, and Union Oyster House at 200
11d ago · 55:32
Boston Chief of Arts and Culture Joseph Zeal-Henry joins us to talk about what the city’s next cultural chapter might look like — from affordable rehearsal space and a new cultural infrastructure plan to the future of the Boston Center for the Arts. We’ll also look at LEXICON, the new 23-foot installation at the Boston Public Library that brings art, engineering and public space together. MassArt president Mary Grant returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence.” This month, we consider Norman Rockwell and the American story at 250 through the Norman Rockwell Museum’s sweeping new exhibition, American
August 18, 2026 - Richard Russo on "Under the Falls," Chef Barbara Lynch, and Imari Paris Jeffries
12d ago · 55:42
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo joins us to discuss his new novel, Under the Falls, about a rock star returning to the struggling upstate New York town he fled as a teenager — and confronting the resentment, loyalties and unfinished business he left behind. Russo appears tonight at 6 p.m. with Tom Perrotta at the Cambridge Public Library, in an event presented by Harvard Book Store. The event is sold out, but a standby line will be available. James Beard Award-winning chef Barbara Lynch built one of Boston’s most influential restaurant groups before closing her remaining restaura
August 17, 2026 - Paula Cole, Chris Vognar on a new era of talk shows, and Working Coast - Below the Line
13d ago · 55:31
Paula Cole joins us to mark 30 years of her landmark album This Fire. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter reflects on songs including “I Don’t Want to Wait” and “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?,” and on returning to the album three decades later. Her This Fire: 30 tour brings the Rockport-raised artist back to Massachusetts for a September 18 show at The Wilbur. Boston Globe TV and pop culture critic Chris Vognar looks at the changing face of the celebrity interview. As traditional late night loses its hold on audiences, shows including Hot Ones, SubwayTakes and Chicken Shop Date are finding
August 14, 2026 - Week in Review: DNF Debate, Potterheads' Win Duel With History, and Obama's Great Books
16d ago · 53:39
Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons, Artistic and Executive Director of the Roxbury International Film Festival, and GBH’s Jeremy Siegel, host of In Common, for a look at some of the week’s biggest arts and culture stories. Before Anthony Bourdain became the celebrated chef, writer and world traveler we knew, he was a cocky 19-year-old who landed at the bottom of a Provincetown restaurant kitchen. The new film Tony revisits that formative summer, with The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa playing the future culinary icon. Nearly 30 years after the murder of Tupac Shak
August 13, 2026 - Valerie Fridland, Phillip Kennicott and an afternoon at the opera with Jane Eaglan
17d ago · 55:31
Valerie Fridland, sociolinguist and professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, joins us to talk about her new book, Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents—from how accents develop and change to what our speech can reveal about identity, belonging and the assumptions we make about one another. Philip Kennicott, Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic for The Washington Post, discusses the paper’s ambitious project, The 25 most influential works of American culture, tracing 250 years through everything from Thomas Paine and Jackson Pollock to blue jeans, Thriller and Doom. Jane Eag
August 12, 2026 - Judy Collins, Mahesh Daas on architecture and heat waves , and the North End Fisherman's Feast
18d ago · 55:32
Judy Collins joins us ahead of her “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour”stop at Tanglewood on August 30, co-starring Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash, with special guest Amanda Shires. Collins discusses “Both Sides Now,” interpreting other writers’ songs and writing her own material. Mahesh Daas, president of the Boston Architectural College, returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” to talk about how cities can adapt to increasingly extreme summer heat—from shade and trees to water, street design and lessons from places that have lived with punishing temperatures for centuries. The 116th an
August 11, 2026 - Ask E. Jean, Justin Crane on the McKinley School, and The Jack of Hearts Club
19d ago · 55:28
For decades, E. Jean Carroll dispensed advice as a journalist, television personality and Elle columnist. Then she took Donald Trump to court—and won twice. Director Ivy Meeropol joins us to discuss Ask E. Jean, her new documentary looking beyond the courtroom at Carroll’s unconventional life, career and refusal to be silenced. Ask E. Jean screens August 11 at 6 p.m. at Water’s Edge Cinema in Provincetown, followed by a Q&A with Meeropol, and August 27 as part of the Nantucket Film Festival’s NFF NOW Summer Doc Series. Revere’s century-old McKinley School is being transformed into an unusual c
August 10, 2026 - Emily Ruddock, Carl Sprinchorn Exhibition, and Big Little Books with a French 75 Twist
20d ago · 55:29
Federal arts funding cuts are hitting New England organizations in jobs, programs and dollars. Emily Ruddock, executive director of MASSCreative, joins Jared to discuss a new regional survey of 125 arts and cultural organizations, which reports $13.5 million in lost or unavailable funding and more than 700 jobs affected. Swedish-born modernist Carl Sprinchorn found inspiration in the Maine woods, painting the lumberjacks, hunters and laborers who lived and worked there. Devon Zimmerman, curator at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, discusses the major new exhibition Carl Sprinchorn: All the
August 7, 2026 - Week in Review: Ariana Grande, an AI summer camp, and John Cage's long awaited chord change
23d ago · 55:30
This week on The Culture Show, Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show co-host Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor James Sullivan, a journalist and author specializing in popular culture and Americana who is also on the faculty of Emerson College, for a look at the week’s top arts and culture headlines. Ariana Grande plans to step back from public life after her Eternal Sunshine tour, following years of scrutiny over her body and health. Can a celebrity ever truly reclaim her privacy? A new MASSCreative survey finds New England arts groups lost $11.4 million in federal funding, affectin
August 6, 2026 - Cellist Matt Haimovitz, Claudia Rankine on "Triage," and The Great Elephant Migration
24d ago · 55:31
Cellist Matt Haimovitz discusses Neighbors, a three-track EP created after federal immigration operations brought fear and protest to his new home in the Twin Cities. Recorded with University of Minnesota students and colleagues, the project includes a reimagining of Ernest Bloch’s “Prayer” incorporating the words of Minneapolis activists. Matt Haimovitz is a multi-Grammy-nominated cellist and assistant professor of cello at the University of Minnesota. Claudia Rankine discusses Triage, a genre-defying work that moves among novel, memoir, criticism and visual art. Through two women whose decad
August 5, 2026 - Dylan Gottlieb's "Yuppies," Natalie Lemle's "Artifacts," and Plays in Place with Patrick Gabridge
25d ago · 55:31
Historian Dylan Gottlieb discusses Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York, which traces how ambitious young bankers, lawyers and other professionals made Wall Street glamorous, reshaped American cities and helped build a culture of punishing work, gentrification and widening inequality. The book was named one of The New Yorker’s best books of 2026 so far. Writer and visual art advisor Natalie Lemle discusses her debut novel, Artifacts. The story follows a trusts-and-estates lawyer drawn into a dispute over a Roman glass cup that Italy says was illegally re
August 4, 2026 - Paul Giamatti and John Turturro on Rhinoceros, Cookie Queens, and Jazz Urbane Cafe
26d ago · 55:30
Paul Giamatti and John Turturro discuss the American Repertory Theater’s production of Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.Directed by Diane Paulus, the darkly comic play follows a town whose residents surrender their humanity and join the herd. The production runs August 14 through September 27 at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge. To learn more go here. Director Alysa Nahmias discusses Cookie Queens, a new documentary following four Girl Scouts, ages five to twelve, through the ambition, competition and family commitment of cookie season. The film examines what girls learn while navigating an $800
August 3, 2026 - TV Goes to the Movies at the Brattle, Boston's sporty public art, and Dear Evan Hansen
27d ago · 55:31
The Brattle Theatre’s TV Goes to the Movies series explores how filmmakers have portrayed television news, corporate power and journalistic ambition. Boston Globe critic Chris Vognar previews a lineup that includes Network, Broadcast News, The Insider, Nightcrawler and Anchorman. The series runs August 5 through September 2. Culture Show contributor Julia Swanson shares public spaces where art, play and community can keep Boston’s World Cup energy going after the games. Swanson created The Art Walk Project, a collection of self-guided tours exploring murals, sculptures and installations across
July 31, 2026 - BTS snubs the Grammys, sad girl summer, and Zendaya's ancient earrings
1mo ago · 53:47
This week on The Culture Show, Jared Bowen is joined by Co-host Callie Crossley and Culture Show Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik. Joyce Kulhawik is an Emmy-award winning arts and entertainment reporter and President of the Boston Theatre Critics Association. The topics they discuss include: BTS pulled its comeback album, Arirang, from the Grammy race to protest the new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. The group argues that separating Asian pop from the general field marginalizes the artists it claims to recognize. New releases from Olivia Rodrigo, Gracie Abrams, Ariana Grande
July 30, 2026 - Angela Peri and Lisa Lobel on casting Widow's Bay, Mary Grant, and Bones of the Statue of Liberty
1mo ago · 55:15
Angela Peri and Lisa Lobel discuss finding the New England faces who populate Apple TV’s horror comedy Widow’s Bay. Their work on the series earned them their first Emmy nominations for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series. MassArt President Mary Grant returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence,” our recurring series featuring original, algorithm-free ideas from some of the region’s most interesting thinkers. This month, Grant discusses the continued scrutiny of the Smithsonian museum, the resurgence of “grandma hobbies,” and more. Mary’s Summer Reading + Watchlist: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi B
July 29, 2026 - Wednesday Watch Party - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1mo ago · 55:30
For this month’s Wednesday Watch Party, Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show co-host Callie Crossley, host of GBH’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, and Joyce Kulhawik, the Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment reporter and president of the Boston Theater Critics Association, to revisit James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Thirty-five years after its release, the film’s imagined 2029 is now just three years away. The conversation considers how its vision of artificial intelligence looks from 2026, whether the sequel surpassed the original, and how the digital breakthrough that
July 28, 2026 - Emily Wilson on The Odyssey, Kevin Nealon, and Laurie Anderson
1mo ago · 55:28
Emily Wilson, professor and chair of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses how her acclaimed translation of The Odyssey helped shape Christopher Nolan’s approach to Homer’s hero. Nolan singled out Wilson’s opening line—“Tell me about a complicated man”—as a key reference point for the film. Wilson considers what the blockbuster preserves or leaves behind as it brings the ancient epic to the screen, and why her translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad have transformed the way modern readers encounter Homer. Her forthcoming book is Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys T
July 27, 2026 - Kerri Maher on Summer of Love, Hany Farid, and Fazendo a América at the MFA
1mo ago · 55:30
Kerri Maher discusses her new novel, Summer of Love, which moves between 1967 San Francisco and the present, tracing how the freedoms, ambitions and upheavals of one generation shape the next. Digital forensics pioneer Hany Farid has spent his career determining whether photographs and videos are real. He joins Bowen to discuss how AI can fabricate events that never happened, cast doubt on genuine evidence and make even an expert question his own eyes. Farid is the Donald Knuth Professor of Computation and Just Communities and a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, as well as co

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The Culture Show Podcast

Episodes 300

August 28, 2026 - Week in Review: Remembering Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Yayoi Kusama

August 27, 2026 - Christopher Rothko, Ask E. Jean, and "Broken American Dream" with Daniel Paquette

August 26, 2026 - Remembering Dolly Parton with Paula Cole, Conversations with an Executioner, and corsets in Worcester

August 25, 2026 - Masquerade, Chef Ana Sortun, and Christin Geall on "Flora Culture"

August 24, 2026 - Sally Mann, Jeremy Sewall and being Henry David Thoreau

August 21, 2026 - Week in Review: Hayden Panettiere, Columbia House Music Club, and Phoebe Bridgers' Mass. connection

August 20, 2026 - Larkin McPhee, Pedro Alonzo, and Melissa Errico

August 19, 2026 - Boston Arts and Culture Chief Joseph Zeil-Henry, Mary Grant, and Union Oyster House at 200

August 18, 2026 - Richard Russo on "Under the Falls," Chef Barbara Lynch, and Imari Paris Jeffries

August 17, 2026 - Paula Cole, Chris Vognar on a new era of talk shows, and Working Coast - Below the Line

August 14, 2026 - Week in Review: DNF Debate, Potterheads' Win Duel With History, and Obama's Great Books

August 13, 2026 - Valerie Fridland, Phillip Kennicott and an afternoon at the opera with Jane Eaglan

August 12, 2026 - Judy Collins, Mahesh Daas on architecture and heat waves , and the North End Fisherman's Feast

August 11, 2026 - Ask E. Jean, Justin Crane on the McKinley School, and The Jack of Hearts Club

August 10, 2026 - Emily Ruddock, Carl Sprinchorn Exhibition, and Big Little Books with a French 75 Twist

August 7, 2026 - Week in Review: Ariana Grande, an AI summer camp, and John Cage's long awaited chord change

August 6, 2026 - Cellist Matt Haimovitz, Claudia Rankine on "Triage," and The Great Elephant Migration

August 5, 2026 - Dylan Gottlieb's "Yuppies," Natalie Lemle's "Artifacts," and Plays in Place with Patrick Gabridge

August 4, 2026 - Paul Giamatti and John Turturro on Rhinoceros, Cookie Queens, and Jazz Urbane Cafe

August 3, 2026 - TV Goes to the Movies at the Brattle, Boston's sporty public art, and Dear Evan Hansen

July 31, 2026 - BTS snubs the Grammys, sad girl summer, and Zendaya's ancient earrings

July 30, 2026 - Angela Peri and Lisa Lobel on casting Widow's Bay, Mary Grant, and Bones of the Statue of Liberty

July 29, 2026 - Wednesday Watch Party - Terminator 2: Judgement Day

July 28, 2026 - Emily Wilson on The Odyssey, Kevin Nealon, and Laurie Anderson

July 27, 2026 - Kerri Maher on Summer of Love, Hany Farid, and Fazendo a América at the MFA

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Episodes 300

August 28, 2026 - Week in Review: Remembering Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Yayoi Kusama

August 27, 2026 - Christopher Rothko, Ask E. Jean, and "Broken American Dream" with Daniel Paquette

August 26, 2026 - Remembering Dolly Parton with Paula Cole, Conversations with an Executioner, and corsets in Worcester

August 25, 2026 - Masquerade, Chef Ana Sortun, and Christin Geall on "Flora Culture"

August 24, 2026 - Sally Mann, Jeremy Sewall and being Henry David Thoreau

August 21, 2026 - Week in Review: Hayden Panettiere, Columbia House Music Club, and Phoebe Bridgers' Mass. connection

August 20, 2026 - Larkin McPhee, Pedro Alonzo, and Melissa Errico

August 19, 2026 - Boston Arts and Culture Chief Joseph Zeil-Henry, Mary Grant, and Union Oyster House at 200

August 18, 2026 - Richard Russo on "Under the Falls," Chef Barbara Lynch, and Imari Paris Jeffries

August 17, 2026 - Paula Cole, Chris Vognar on a new era of talk shows, and Working Coast - Below the Line

August 14, 2026 - Week in Review: DNF Debate, Potterheads' Win Duel With History, and Obama's Great Books

August 13, 2026 - Valerie Fridland, Phillip Kennicott and an afternoon at the opera with Jane Eaglan

August 12, 2026 - Judy Collins, Mahesh Daas on architecture and heat waves , and the North End Fisherman's Feast

August 11, 2026 - Ask E. Jean, Justin Crane on the McKinley School, and The Jack of Hearts Club

August 10, 2026 - Emily Ruddock, Carl Sprinchorn Exhibition, and Big Little Books with a French 75 Twist

August 7, 2026 - Week in Review: Ariana Grande, an AI summer camp, and John Cage's long awaited chord change

August 6, 2026 - Cellist Matt Haimovitz, Claudia Rankine on "Triage," and The Great Elephant Migration

August 5, 2026 - Dylan Gottlieb's "Yuppies," Natalie Lemle's "Artifacts," and Plays in Place with Patrick Gabridge

August 4, 2026 - Paul Giamatti and John Turturro on Rhinoceros, Cookie Queens, and Jazz Urbane Cafe

August 3, 2026 - TV Goes to the Movies at the Brattle, Boston's sporty public art, and Dear Evan Hansen

July 31, 2026 - BTS snubs the Grammys, sad girl summer, and Zendaya's ancient earrings

July 30, 2026 - Angela Peri and Lisa Lobel on casting Widow's Bay, Mary Grant, and Bones of the Statue of Liberty

July 29, 2026 - Wednesday Watch Party - Terminator 2: Judgement Day

July 28, 2026 - Emily Wilson on The Odyssey, Kevin Nealon, and Laurie Anderson

July 27, 2026 - Kerri Maher on Summer of Love, Hany Farid, and Fazendo a América at the MFA